


Polka Dots

by mrs_schoolweek



Series: Spotty the Ghoul [3]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Body Dysphoria, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Gender Issues, Kinda, Non-binary character, Self-Esteem Issues, handling delicate matters in rather non-delicate way, how the hell does it work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 13:30:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10164044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_schoolweek/pseuds/mrs_schoolweek
Summary: Raul and Cass catch the non-binary Courier Spotty in the worst of times. Awkwardness, emotional hurt and hilarious solving attempts follow.





	

Raul opened the bedroom door at Lucky 38.  
And closed it with a loud slam. Caray!   
He made a quick spin around and strided to the kitchen as fast as he could. Cass tilted her head up and looked at him, surprised look on her face:  
"Saw a ghost there or something? What's going on?"  
Raul shook his head. He... Fuck. He needed a drink. Or a bottle. Cass's moonshine was suddenly quite tempting.  
"Spotty's going on", he growled after swallowing half of the liquor. Cass frowned.  
"What? Like, you had a fight or something?" she asked. Raul shook his head again.  
"Dios mio, no. Spotty is... It just looked bad in there."

Cass couldn't resist her curiosity. She had come this far with the courier. What could be so... Oh dear god.  
Spotty blushed bright red from all it's skin patches and stumbled backwards. A worn, silky and laced set of lingerie hang loosely on it's skinny, damaged body.   
"Please, Cass... Go away", the ghoul cried and tugged a sheet from one bed to cover itself. Cass blinked but did not move. She was not sure if she still could. The ghoul's body was like bark of an old, dead tree: all cracking and peeling.  
"Close the door", Spotty begged and started pulling it's pants hastily back on. Cass harrumphed.  
"That's... You have duct tape around your chest", she muttered. Spotty looked like it was about to cry.  
"I... Yeah, that keeps stuff in place. Could you now just... Please", it whispered and covered it's spotty face with equally spotty hands.

"Have you seen boss?", Raul asked when sun begun to set. Cass shook her head.  
"I thought it told you where it went", she told him and bit her lip. She was tipsy and guiltily amused but a bit of her understood Spotty might actually be mortified. Raul frowned and shook his head. He should have said something... Something kind.  
"Spotty is... Pretty badly damaged. Did you... Hadn't you seen that before?" Cass said slowly, toying with a bottle cap.  
"Well, I surely knew that and I've patched it up many times but... That was a a little different", Raul admitted. He felt seriously bad. He wasn't any less terrible-looking and still he had reacted like a damn ass hat bigot.  
"Is it that Spotty gets kicks from that or is it..." Cass wasn't too sure about the terminology. The whole thing was a bit confusing.  
"Well, I have never asked boss if it jacks off ladies' clothes on if that's what you mean", Raul grunted. Talking about this begun to feel really graceless.   
"But I bet you rushing there to ogle didn't lift it's mood."

Spotty sat on a roof at the Freeside for several hours. Didn't think about jumping, though. It just felt too embarrassing to get back to Lucky 38 and face the companions.  
Spotty was not embarrassed about the women's clothes, though. It had told Raul about that and the whole gender thing before. As far as Spotty knew, he wasn't too bothered by that.  
And Cass? Cass had surely seen people having more odd habits.  
Problem wasn't that Spotty liked pretty lingerie. Actually, the problem wasn't even that it was a ghoul.  
Spotty simply wished to be at least a bit pretty. Based on it's friends' expressions, Spotty was everything but that.   
And their shocked faces had left an aching brand straight onto it's heart.

When Spotty came back, clock ticked small hours already and everybody, even Rex, was in bed already. That was a relief, actually. The courier sneaked to bed and buried itself under blankets, wishing to disappear completely.  
Raul wasn't sleeping. He didn't have the heart to let his boss know he had waited for it to return but hearing Spotty sniffle in it's bed was like an evening prayer. After that he could finally close his eyes and get some sleep.

Raul knew who Spotty's favorite "escort" was. As soon as he woke up in the morning, he left a note that he had gone to a gunsmith (which was a crappy lie ,since he was better at fixing his guns than the local smith) and headed to the Atomic Wrangler.  
"My boss has been seeing you lately", Raul simply said to Beatrix. The ghoulette shook her head.  
"I'm not supposed to answer this kind of questions", she scolded. Raul looked desperate.  
"I've been right here when Spotty has paid you for it! Besides, that's not what I'm going to ask you about", he sighed and shrugged his shoulders.  
"It's just that Boss... I mean, we caught Spotty wearing girls' clothes yesterday and it was devastated. Didn't come back before sunrise. What are we supposed to do?"  
"Spotty wearing girls' clothes? Was it masturbating?", Beatrix asked, looking confused. This didn't sound too odd to her. Some of her clients wore working horse gear.  
"No", Raul exclaimed, feeling uneasy. He wouldn't go around talking things like that about his best friend.  
"It's just that... Spotty's pretty ugly. And we kind of a did not expect boss hanging around all girly and..." he wasn't sure what to say and shrugged.  
"So... You are telling me that the nice little guy who goes helping around, saving wastelander asses and giving whores a good tip "was too girly and ugly" for it's best friends?" Beatrix asked slowly, observing Raul's reactions.  
"I... Dios mio, you might be right", Raul grunted and rushed out of the Wrangler.

"Spotty left to do some important stuff with the Khans. I thought you had gone with it", Cass wondered when Raul arrived back. He shook his head.  
"I was talking to Spotty's... lady friend. I think we deserve Friends of the Year Award", the ghoul sighed, looking miserable. Cass bit her lip.  
"You mean because we busted it doing... Something?" she guessed. Raul shook his head again.   
"Spotty is the courier who has united Mojave. Our little fellow goes around telling people ghouls aren't all bad, negotiating with everyone, shooting murderous thugs with missile launchers... And pretty much the only thing people know is that boss is the gross creature who isn't quite chica but neither a chico", he muttered. No amount of snarky humor couldn't erase how rude and sad it really was.  
Cass couldn't say anything. She knew Raul was right. Like it wasn't bad enough Spotty had to prove itself not-feral each time it visited a new settlement... And hearing "zombie trannie" day in and day out... And taking bullets for it's friends...  
"When we had the Van Graff showdown and Spotty got stabbed in a lung... That is healed already, right?" Cass asked weakly and looked at her hands rather than Raul. The man emitted a dry, unamused laughter:  
"Healed? Boss is a ghoul held together by duct tape, Cass. But no, the lung isn't leaking air any more if that's what you mean."

Cass was sure Spotty's feelings were hurt because they had reacted like it was ugly. According to her, the best game plan would be to make Spotty feel loved and beautiful.  
"Let's buy it a dress and... I don't know, we could have a three-buddies-date in some casino", she suggested. Raul frowned:  
"Are you sure that's a real thing, girl? I've lived over two hundred years and never heard of three-buddies-dates."  
Cass nodded and smirked. She had been in all kinds of dates imaginable.  
"It is real, old man. When Spotty comes back, we'll get dressed nicely, go to a casino, eat well, drink hell of a lot of booze and when we have lost our chips and shoes to some cocky-looking gambling addict, we take hookers along and come back here", she explained patiently. Raul didn't look too convinced.  
"Sure, boss will love that. Being laughed at in a dress, getting mildly drunk because it's a ghoul, losing money and getting herpes", he stated. It was Cass's turn to frown.  
"What do you have in mind, then? Getting irradiated Mexican ghoul style?"  
Raul tried his best not to look irritated.  
"No. I suggest we buy Spotty a fine new shotgun, arrange a good fight with some legionnaires and stop talking about it's underwear", he answered. Cass looked troubled.  
"Probably one of us is right and the other painfully wrong. What if we do them both and hope Spotty gets the right one first?"

Two days of intense adventuring alone in the Wastes and delivering messages from the Khans were refreshing. Spotty thought it's friends had hopefully forgot the lingerie episode already.   
Coming home sweaty and covered in the blood of enemies felt good. A proof that Spotty was doing something real. Elevator climbed higher and higher, bringing Spotty closer to well-earned rest. It planned to take a bath and drink ice-cold Nuka-Cola...   
When Raul and Cass appeared from behind the elevator door.  
"Hi, Spotty! Did you have a good hunt?"  
"Hola, boss! We assumed you didn't want anyone bothering while you kicked ass."  
Spotty felt awkward. This was possibly the worst not-at-all-practiced empowering welcome speech to a humiliated friend ever. It just wanted to get something to drink and...  
"You know, while you were away saving the whole Mojave again, old Raul tried to do something useful as well. Say hi to Bastardo, your new drum-magazine combat shotgun", Raul told and oh boy... Spotty didn't like attention like this too much but the gun made it's knees soft and fluffy like cotton candy. It was a real beauty!  
Raul winked to Cass. Boss looked happy. She wouldn't have to...  
"You know what this is? It's your dress, Spotty. Tonight we have a date."  
Too late.

Spotty looked at the shotgun and the polka dot dress. And the shotgun again. And the dress.  
"I... I don't know what is going on. Is this... Christmas is not now", it mumbled and stepped out of the elevator. Cass and Raul looked uneasy.  
"You two... Wait, this is about my dress-up incident, right?"  
Raul and Cass looked at each other and gulped.   
So much about just-casually-appreciating-our-generally-awesome-non-binary-boss.

Spotty's face was blushed and grumpy at the same time.  
"I really like you guys", it muttered, getting Raul's and Cass's hopes up for a short while.  
"But Raul, if you are trying to repair my macho self-image with that overly masculine badass shotgun, I'm going to make you wear Cass's dress", Spotty snarked. Sparkle in it's eyes revealed it couldn't be too pissed off about a fine gun, though. Cass looked smug, until...  
"And Cass, if you say one more cheesy word about "your unique polka dot boss in the unique polka dot dancing dress" I'll fucking blast your kneecaps off", Spotty growled (quite playfully, however.)  
After a long, awkward silence Spotty giggled nervously. Raul looked at his suddenly very interesting shoes and asked:  
"So, boss... What kind of reaction would be appropriate? Because you are the only "non-binary ghoul"ness specialist in here."  
Spotty looked at them and started laughing. Cass giggled as well and soon Spotty roared in laughter. In a minute or so, all three were wobbly piles of chuckles.  
"O... Okay, how about this: I'll go wash this fiend blood off and after that, we'll find something to drink?"

Trough a bottom of the third whiskey bottle the whole fuss started to seem a bit funny.  
"So... Why were you wearing those things? I mean, is it a fetish of yours or..." Cass asked cheerily and leaned her head against Spotty's shoulder. Raul tensed but the other ghoul didn't mind.  
"That's the fun part. It is not", Spotty told her and blushed:  
"I wanted to find something nice to wear on a date... But now I've pretty much understood the date is not going to happen."  
Cass and Raul gazed each other in terror. Oh shit, the courier had a crush on either of them!  
Raul kind of a guessed it wasn't him and forced himself to ask:  
"Why not? Who's the lucky lady, boss?"  
Spotty turned blood-red and buried it's face to it's palms.  
"Gentleman. But I bet a hundred caps he wouldn't feel too lucky if I asked him out", it whispered. Cass felt bad for the ghoul.  
"Hey, you haven't even asked him yet. I'm sure he thinks you are a big damn hero, Spotty. He might say yes, right Raul?" she said and stared Raul so intensively he had to mutter some sort of "yes".  
"See? I think you will be lovely in your new dress. Come on, you have dug yourself up from a grave. Sure you can ask a guy out and dress nicely", Cass assured. Spotty looked at her shyly.  
"You really think so? I don't even know if he's into ghouls at all... And I bet he will be freaked out about the gender issue", it said. Cass shook her head and made a hidden gun-pointing gesture to Raul, making sure he would agree.  
"Relax, Spotty. You are sweet just the way you are. Can I help you to ask him out?" Cass asked and smiled reassuringly. Spotty looked surprised:  
"You think Benny could really say yes? Please, help me ask him then... And could you help me with the dressing up as well?"

When Spotty was in a bathroom, Cass and Raul looked each other in terror.  
It was one thing to save the Wasteland with a badass warrior and completely other to convince a bigoted, corrupt asshole to a date with ugly little ghoul. Who wasn't even a girl.  
"Have you ever tortured a man with electricity?" Raul asked with a low voice and bit his lip. They couldn't let their boss down again. Cass nodded.  
"Tomorrow, at sunrise. You bring the battery and cables, I'll handle his guards. If Spotty asks, I was giving you a blowjob on the roof", she whispered back.  
"Dios mio, what? Why?"  
"Because we can't say we were torturing that shithead to date Spotty. And because I might have a thing for grumpy old vaqueros", Cass hissed and pressed a whiskey-tasting kiss on Raul's mouth.

The end <3


End file.
